Summary:Seireitei Psychiatric Hospital, a place for those deemed insane and beyond help. Can one determined healer prove them wrong and heal the one she loves?
Genre:Romance/Hurt/Comfort/Angst [possible humor]
Warnings:AU/Sex/Language/Mature Themes
Pairings:Ichigo and Orihime

AUTHORS NOTE:Hello to anyone reading this, I don't really have much to say except that I hope you enjoy it, oh and thanks for reading this.

A Schizophrenics Love

Chapter 12: Orihime vs. Grimmjow

People often assumed Nel was a bit slow due to her mental state of mind. She didn't really care about what people thought of her, and for the most part, she played up to their assumptions after finding it often got her gifts and special treatment. Of course, it wasn't true. Nel was an extremely intelligent and attentive young woman, even in he self imposed five year old form. Orihime soon found that Nel had an incredible knack for noticing things, even if she didn't realise the significance of what she noticed.

"Ichi was smiling today," she blurted out in an absent minded tone during her session with Orihime. Orihime had set her the task of painting herself a timeline of her life, in an attempt to learn more about her troubled past. Nel herself was hunched over her work, her brows furrowed and her tongue sticking out her mouth as she tried to concentrating on painting her picture. She hadn't said much since she had started painting, only the odd word or so.

"Hm? What was that Nel-chan? I didn't quite hear you?"

Nel didn't say anything for a few minutes, and Orihime began to wonder if she had just imagined Nel speaking.

"Nel said, Ichi was smiling today," she still didn't look up at Orihime as she spoke. Orihime frowned slightly, not understanding the significance of what Nel was saying and why she was speaking in such a worried tone.

"Well…that's good…isn't it Nel-chan?"

Again, there was silence after Orihime asked her question and Orihime had to wonder what had gotten into Nel today. Normally she was so talkative and it was almost impossible to get her to quieten down and concentrated. Nel paused for a moment before dropping her paintbrush and turning to face Orihime. Orihime was shocked to see that her usual excited grin was gone from her face, and instead place with a thoughtful and brooding look. It was rather odd to see her looking so serious.

"Nel doesn't think it was a real smile…Ichi was pretending…I don't like it when Ichi pretends."

"And what makes you think that Nel-chan? People can smile you know, they smile for lots of different reasons. You're always smiling aren't you?"

Nel sighed and shook her head, as if she was frustrated that Orihime wasn't understanding her. Orihime couldn't help but smile at her actions, it was a sort of role reversal.

"Ori-himay doesn't understand!" Nel puffed out her cheeks and them blew the air into Orihime's face before getting down onto her knees and crawling over to her, "every time Ichi smiles like that, Ichi gets hurt and….and… and Nel gets scared!"

"Nel-chan, wha- Nel!" Orihime was startled to see Nel suddenly burst into loud noisy tears, she got up and enveloped the young woman in a tight embrace, "ssh," she murmured as she gently rubbed her shaking back, "ssh Nel-chan, why are you crying? Huh?"

"C…ca…cause Nel doesn't want Ichi to get hurt agaaain!"

"Hurt?"

"Ye…yeah, like when he fighted with Grimmjow or when he cutted himself and he was bleeding for ages! Nel doesn't want that to happen this time!"

It took a moment for the information to register in Orihime's head, but she soon understood what Nel was talking about. Today June 16th. Tomorrow would be June 17th, and there hadn't been one June 17th since Ichigo arrived at the hospital where something didn't occur. And Nel was worried about him. That's sweet, Orihime thought with a small smile as she carried on trying to soothe her, she really does care about him quite a lot.

"Ori-himay? You…you have to look after Ichi, okay? You have to make sure he's alright. Ichi trusts you. Ichi will listen to you."

"I promise to try, Nel-chan. I promise to try."

Orihime gently closed Nel's bedroom door, before making her way down the corridor to find Ulquiorra for his session. After she had finally gotten Nel to calm down, Nel had gone back to painting her picture; which ended up not being a timeline, but a picture of her (Nel), Ichigo, Orihime, and her brothers, all smiling up from the paper.

"Inoue-san!"

Orihime turned around to find Ikkaku running towards her with a relieved expression on his face, "I'm glad I caught you before you got to Ulquiorra,"

"Hello Ikkaku-san, can I help you with anything?" Orihime asked politely, she hadn't really spoken to Ikkaku much since her first day, she'd never needed any security help which she was extremely thankful for. Ikkaku nodded,

"Yeah, Unohana-sama wants to speak with you quickly, she asked me to come find you before you got to Ulquiorra."

Orihime's heart started beating erratically as she followed Ikkaku down the corridor to Unohana's office, what on Earth did she have to say to her, as far as she could remember she hadn't done anything wrong. She hadn't broken any rules. Well, there was the minor issue with her confusing relationship with Ichigo, but since that night when she had taken him out, there had been no issues with her professionalism and she had done her best to quell her feelings and emotions around him. Maybe he's noticed how I feel and he's complained about me!

"Oh no," she muttered aloud, for now she was sure that was the reason for Unohana calling her into her office. I'm going to lose my job, she could feel her palms getting sweaty, she was about to start hyperventilating.

"Inoue-san?"

Orihime jumped slightly as Ikkaku's voice floated into her ear, interrupting her from her mutinous thoughts.

"We're here…"

"Oh…oh…thanks Ikkaku-san," she gulped as she turned and faced the ominous door, sure that if she entered the room she would leave without a job. Ikkaku seemed to sense her hesitance to enter the office, so he chuckled,

"There's no need to look so worried, Inoue-san, I'm sure whatever Unohana-sama wants to talk to you about is just a formality."

Orihime smiled nervously at the bald security guard, though still not feeling totally reassured. She took a deep breath before knocking on the door three times. There was silence for a fraction of a second before a clear and commanding voice rang out,

"You may enter!"

And Orihime entered the room to face her doom.

"Hello Unohana-sama," Orihime bowed politely to her boss as she entered the room.

"Ah Orihime-san, I'm glad Ikkaku caught you before your session with Ulquiorra, I just wanted to have a quick word with you. Take a seat please,"

Orihime nervously took a seat opposite Unohana.

"Now, I'm sure you can guess why I've called you in here today of all days?"

Orihime gulped, fearing her suspicions were true.

"It's about Ichigo…"

Orihime was sure her heart missed a few beats when Unohana said his name, she felt sure she was going to be fired.

"…I want you to take extra care with him for the next few days, tomorrow especially."

"Eh?" now those were not the words she expected to hear coming out of Unohana's mouth, she was expecting something more along the lines of, you've behaved in an extremely unprofessional manner, you are hereby fired from this job, and your medical license has been revoked!

"Yes, you've read his case history I'm sure?"

Orihime nodded.

"Then you will be familiar with the fact that a July 17th has not occurred at this hospital since Ichigo arrived without an incident involving him. Tomorrow, of course is the anniversary of his mothers death and we suspect that this may be the cause of his behavioural problems on this day. You have done a marvellous job with him in your short period here, we've only had one incident with him haven't we? That is a massive improvement and I congratulate you on that, but I'm afraid their will be an incident tomorrow, or perhaps even today, so I need you to be on full alert."

Orihime felt like a huge load had been lifted off her shoulders and she nodded eagerly at Unohana, "of course I will!"

Unohana smiled at her exuberant doctor, it really was refreshing to see a doctor so in to their patients well being, "excellent. I've informed Ichigo's father that it will be you taking Ichigo to the cemetery tomorrow, so there shall be no problems there,"

Orihime nodded once more, earlier in the week she had been informed that Ichigo visited his mothers grave every year and normally Unohana accompanied him since she had been his previous doctor, but Orihime had requested that she be allowed to go instead of Unohana since she was his doctor now.

"Very well then, I won't keep you any longer from your meeting with Ulquiorra, thank you Orihime-san."

It took her a while to find Ulquiorra. He wasn't in his bedroom, or her meeting room, or even the library. She frowned as she walked briskly around the hospital, he knew they had an appointment so it wasn't logical that he wasn't in one of their various meeting places. She had about to begin panicking and call in to security, when she popped her head into one of the recreational rooms and found Ulquiorra. Unfortunately he wasn't alone. Ulquiorra was standing in the middle of the room with his arms crossed and his usual bored expression on his face, standing opposite him was an extremely angry looking Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez. Orihime froze in the doorway as she watched to two men arguing with each other, or more…she watched Grimmjow screaming profanities at Ulquiorra whilst he stood there watching as if nothing fazed him. Orihime was about to edge out of the room to try and find a member of security before things escalated out of control, but she was stopped by the words she heard hiss out of Grimmjow's mouth.

"Why don't ya go off yourself huh? You fucking pussy!"

Before Orihime even registered what she was doing, she had whirled around and stormed angrily back into the room. Ulquiorra was her patient, no matter how moody and unresponsive he was, and she would not allow his illness to be mocked in that way. Who knew what damage those few words could have afflicted upon the sullen man?

"Jaegerjaquez-san! I'm going to have to ask you to leave this room, immediately!" her voice had an icy chill to it that sounded foreign to her, even Ulquiorra seemed to recognise the change in her voice for he turned towards her and slightly raised his eyebrow. It didn't seem to have the desired effect on Grimmjow however, instead of being fearful of her, a sadistic grin played at his features as he turned to face her.

He has a thing for women, Orihime recalled as she watched a Grimmjow began slowly eyeing her body up, perhaps this wasn't the best of ideas.

"And who the fuck are you?"

Orihime narrowed her eyes and stepped a bit further towards him, "I am Doctor Inoue, Ulquiorra-san's doctor, and I cannot allow you to abuse him like this. I'm not going to ask you again, please leave."

Grimmjow's grin only stretched further across his face at his words,

"Another bitch doctor huh? Another whore who likes to be in control? Is that what you like doctor?" he laughed maniacally, "well fuck me, this is just my lucky day, huh?"

"Grimmjow," Ulquiorra said in a warning tone that was barely above a whisper.

"Shut the fuck up you emo piece of shit, I'll deal with you later," he licked his lips sensually as she took in Orihime's now shivering body, "I need to deal with this first."

"Jaegerjaquez-san," Orihime said hesitantly, not liking the look he had in his eyes, it was almost predatory.

"You know what I hate more than anything?" he growled as he took a few short steps closer towards Orihime, "I hate a bitch who thinks she the boss of me. You know what I love more than anything?" he was crackling his knuckles together now, "I love taking the bitch down a few levels. I love letting her know whose really boss!"

Before she even had a chance to react he bent down low, like a cat getting ready to jump, and suddenly pounced on top of her. She felt the glass digging in to her face before she heard the smash, belatedly she wondered what is was he had pushed her in to, all she knew was that an incredible pain was searing through her face and out of the corner of her eye she could see Grimmjow was coming back for more. She slowly started to push herself up from the ground, trying to get away.

"Grimmjow!" Ulquiorra's warning was louder this time, but Grimmjow still took know notice.

"FUCK OFF ULQUIORRA! She's getting up, she's fine…see?" he chuckled once more as he got into his pouncing position again, "maybe this time the bitch'll know to stay down?" he gave a slight roar this time as he jumped and Orihime squeezed her eyes tightly, waiting for the collision that never came. Instead she heard a dull thud and when she opened her eyes she saw Ulquiorra standing defensively in front her and Grimmjow standing a few feet back, nursing his jaw.

"You are not to touch her!" Ulquiorra said in his monotone voice, though Orihime could detect a bit of emotion behind his words. In the background she could here shouts and the sound of feet running towards them, alerting her to the fact that security were on their way. Shakily, Orihime stood up, feeling her face as she went. As far as she could tell, she'd gotten glass embedded just below her left eye. She did a quick scope of the room and realised the glass had come from the window pane in the door behind her, he smashed me into the door, she realised in wonder, she was really quite surprised that more damage hadn't been done.

"Well whaddaya know? Emo boy can actually fight! So you're not the big pussy I thought you were before, nice ta know, but you made a big fucking mistake. Don't fucking touch me, now I gotta kill ya!"

Thankfully, before Grimmjow had the chance to at least try to act out his statement, the door behind them burst open and several men came running in.

"Oi, Grimmjow, I told ya didn't I? If ya wanna fight with someone, I'm always up for it. Don't start beating on the other patients!" a tall man with an elaborate hairstyle growled as he held Grimmjow in a vice grip, "you're just making my job harder now! Unohana's gonna be pissed with you, ya know?"

"Shut the fuck up Zaraki," Grimmjow growled as he was forcibly dragged out of the room by the head of security, Zaraki Kenpachi, "you…woman. Don't think I've forgotten about you, I'm gonna finish with you later…FUCK!" he keeled over in Zaraki's grip as Zaraki shot out an arm and punched him in the gut to silence him.

"Inoue-san"?

Orihime turned around to find Ikkaku standing with Ulquiorra by his side,

"I'm going to take Ulquiorra back to his room now, too much excitement isn't really good for him."

"Oh, of course, thanks Ikkaku-san," she turned and faced Ulquiorra, "and thank you Ulquiorra, that was extremely brave and kind of you."

Ulquiorra said nothing to acknowledge her words of thanks, instead he said, "you are bleeding," before Ikkaku led him out of the room.

When he was out of earshot and she was finally alone in the room, Orihime let out a frustrated sigh, he's another one, she thought, he's another one I can't understand. Every now and then, he seems almost…almost human…and then he just reverts back to his old self. It also occurred to her that she hadn't had the sense of mind to even find out what he and Grimmjow were arguing about. Berating herself for her foolish actions, Orihime left the room, heading downstairs to the medical department so she could get the cut on her face sorted out.

A/N: See, Ulquiorra can do nice things sometimes ^_^ Review for me please?